The softball season got started for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks Thursday night with a road trip to No. 3 Iowa City Regina. The Regals took an 8-5 win over the Hawks. Regina plated two runs in the first when their first two batters of the night connected for hits against Mid-Prairie starter Kadence Grout, as Avery Kies doubled, then Alli Clark tripled to drive her in and another RBI from Harper Erwin made it 2-0 Regals early. The score stood there until the fourth when Mid-Prairie broke through to take their only lead of the night. The Golden Hawks sent eight to the plate, scoring three times, with runs for Tessa Bombei, Izzy Kite and Dakota Mitchell with Brenna Jehle and Grout delivering run scoring hits. Regina answered back in the bottom half, aided by three Mid-Prairie miscues, the Regals sent eight to the plate and scored four times on RBI from Lacey Chambliss, Reese Litton and Lilly Nibaur to wrestle the lead back for good at 6-3. Two more Regal insurance runs crossed in the fifth to make it 8-3. The Golden Hawks scratched and clawed late, getting single runs in the sixth and seventh before Regina closed out the win. After the contest, Mid-Prairie head coach Amy Hartsock-Williams spoke with KCII sports about what she saw from her team.
She said, “Kadence (Grout) did really well for us. She threw the pitches to get us out of innings. She worked her drop and change-up effectively. Four errors killed us there. If we clean up our defense, we are going to be in games. We left 14 runners on base tonight. We swung at a lot of bad pitches. We helped their pitcher a lot. We need to go to the plate with confidence, find our pitch, drive our pitch and see a lot more energy. Know you can win these games. Tessa Bombei stepped up in the outfield, that’s an eighth grader for us. Couple of base runners tonight, all eighth graders. They might have had some nerves, but, they didn’t show it on the field. They listened, they hustled and were ready to go. I’m really proud of our new kids out there. Kyla Karnes stepped up. Did a really good job putting the ball in play hard. She had confidence there and did a good job in the outfield for us, making a couple of good catches.”
The Golden Hawks were outhit on the night in total nine to six and committed four errors to Regina’s three. Litton got the win in the circle for the Regals, throwing five and two thirds, surrendering six hits, four runs, all unearned, with two walks and eight Ks. Grout took the loss for the Hawks working all six frames with nine hits, eight runs four earned and three strikeouts. Kyla Karnes had a multi-hit night for the Hawks, Grout drove in two and Kite scored twice. Mid-Prairie is now 0-1 on the year as they gear up for a contest with Mount Pleasant tonight.